History VideoGame / SonicXTreme

Originally intended for the [[UsefulNotes/Sega32X 32X]] under the codename ''Sonic Mars'', ''Sonic X-treme'' was a PlatformGame developed by Creator/SegaTechnicalInstitute. Intended to be the franchise's big [[VideoGame3DLeap transition from 2D to 3D gameplay]], the game began production in late 1994 before being unceremoniously cancelled in '97.

If you ever wondered why Creator/{{Sega}} never made a mainline [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]] game for the entire lifespan of the Platform/SegaSaturn, the answer is that they did. Or more so, they ''tried'' to. [[{{Vaporware}} It was just never finished.]]

If you ever wondered why Creator/{{Sega}} never made a mainline [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]] game for the entire lifespan of the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, the answer is that they did. Or more so, they ''tried'' to. [[{{Vaporware}} It was just never finished.]]

Team B's attempts to make the Christmas deadline lead them to try and use code from the engine from ''[=NiGHTS=]'' to ease development, but one or more complications prevented this (there are conflicting reports as to the reason[[note]]Christina Coffin claimed that Yuji Naka threw a tantrum and demanded that the project stop using his engine when he found out, threatening to quit if they continued. Naka himself claims that the engine is written tightly in SH-2 Assembly language and specialized only in that one game, that porting it to use with another game is impossible (especially considering that ''X-treme'' was written in C language), and that Coffin was slandering him in an attempt to save face for failing to complete ''X-treme''. Chris Senn claimed that the team was not given a reason as to why they could no longer use the [=NiGHTS=] engine other than that Naka did not want anyone else using it, that Naka's threats were mere speculation on their part, and that if they were true, he understood Naka's desire to maintain control over Sonic Team technology and the Sonic franchise, especially if STI had been given the engine without his consent[[/note]]). The stress of having to complete a game from absolute scratch in only a few months made Christina Coffin contract pneumonia; she subsequently left the project and the game as a whole was cancelled. With no 3D Sonic to speak of, Sega decided to port over ''VideoGame/Sonic3DFlickiesIsland'' (known in the West as ''[[MarketBasedTitle Sonic 3D Blast]]'') in its stead.

''Sonic X-treme'''s failure to show up on shelves has been largely pointed to as one of the reasons why the Sega Saturn was a commercial failure outside Japan: the Saturn was already lacking entries in many of the prominent series that brought Sega success in Western regions, so the lack of a new mainline installment in their biggest franchise left the Saturn without ''the'' guaranteed KillerApp. This wasn't helped by the fact that rivals Nintendo and Sony had brought to the table [[VideoGame/SuperMario64 their own]] [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996 3D platformer offerings]] for their respective consoles earlier that year. The ''Sonic'' series wouldn't receive a 3D installment until Sega got Sonic Team to [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure revamp the series]] for the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast. Meanwhile, the game's cancellation is blamed for why developer STI [[CreatorKiller dissolved shortly afterwards]].

Team B's attempts to make the Christmas deadline lead them to try and use code from the engine from ''[=NiGHTS=]'' to ease development, but one or more complications prevented this (there are conflicting reports as to the reason[[note]]Christina Coffin claimed that Yuji Naka threw a tantrum and demanded that the project stop using his engine when he found out, threatening to quit if they continued. Naka himself claims that the engine is written tightly in SH-2 Assembly language and specialized only in that one game, that porting it to use with another game is impossible (especially considering that ''X-treme'' was written in C language), and that Coffin was slandering him in an attempt to save face for failing to complete ''X-treme''. Chris Senn claimed that the team was not given a reason as to why they could no longer use the [=NiGHTS=] engine other than that Naka did not want anyone else using it, that Naka's threats were mere speculation on their part, and that if they were true, he understood Naka's desire to maintain control over Sonic Team technology and the Sonic franchise[[/note]]). The stress of having to complete a game from absolute scratch in only a few months made Christina Coffin contract pneumonia; she subsequently left the project and the game as a whole was cancelled. With no 3D Sonic to speak of, Sega decided to port over ''VideoGame/Sonic3DFlickiesIsland'' (known in the West as ''[[MarketBasedTitle Sonic 3D Blast]]'') in its stead.

Team B's attempts to make the Christmas deadline lead them to try and use code from the engine from ''[=NiGHTS=]'' to ease development, but one or more complications prevented this (there are conflicting reports as to the reason[[note]]Christina Coffin claimed that Yuji Naka threw a tantrum and demanded that the project stop using his engine when he found out, threatening to quit if they continued. Naka himself claims that the engine is written tightly in SH-2 Assembly language and specialized only in that one game, that porting it to use with another game is impossible (especially considering that ''X-treme'' was written in C language), and that Coffin was slandering him in an attempt to save face for failing to complete ''X-treme''. Chris Senn claimed that the team was not given a reason as to why they could no longer use the [=NiGHTS=] engine, that Naka's threats were mere speculation on their part, and that if they were true, he understood Naka's desire to maintain control over Sonic Team technology and the Sonic franchise[[/note]]). The stress of having to complete a game from absolute scratch in only a few months made Christina Coffin contract pneumonia; she subsequently left the project and the game as a whole was cancelled. With no 3D Sonic to speak of, Sega decided to port over ''VideoGame/Sonic3DFlickiesIsland'' (known in the West as ''[[MarketBasedTitle Sonic 3D Blast]]'') in its stead.

[[caption-width-right:243:The Sonic game which never was.]]

Team B's attempts to make the Christmas deadline lead them to try and use code from the engine from ''[=NiGHTS=]'' to ease development, but one or more complications prevented this (there are conflicting reports as to the reason[[note]]Christina Coffin claimed that Yuji Naka threw a tantrum and demanded that the project stop using his engine when he found out, threatening to quit if they continued. Naka himself claims that the engine is written tightly in SH-2 Assembly language and specialized only in that one game, that porting it to use with another game is impossible (especially considering that ''X-treme'' was written in C language), and that Coffin was slandering him in an attempt to save face for failing to complete ''X-treme''. Chris Senn claimed that the team was not given a reason as to why they could no longer use the NiGHTS engine, that Naka's threats were mere speculation on their part, and that if they were true, he understood Naka's desire to maintain control over Sonic Team technology and the Sonic franchise[[/note]]). The stress of having to complete a game from absolute scratch in only a few months made Christina Coffin contract pneumonia; she subsequently left the project and the game as a whole was cancelled. With no 3D Sonic to speak of, Sega decided to port over ''VideoGame/Sonic3DFlickiesIsland'' (known in the West as ''[[MarketBasedTitle Sonic 3D Blast]]'') in its stead.

During the move to Coffin's boss engine, Senn and Alon were all but removed from development from the game, though they continued to work on their engine, hoping to pitch it as a PC game, but that also never got the green light, and so their work fell to the wayside. And, like Coffin, Senn also ended up contracting pneumonia, being told by his doctor that he had only six months left to live; thanfully, he survived. With both teams crippled and all three original programmers out of order, the game was finally, truly cancelled.

* PromotedToPlayable: If the game had gotten finished, it could have been Amy's first playable role in a main game. Plans for other character besides Sonic existed, but it was decided to focus on Sonic until everything was perfected.

* TopDownView: When Knuckles was planned to be playable, his gameplay would've a top-down maze like ''Videogame/PacMan'', as [[http://web.archive.org/web/20090221101640/http://www.senntient.com/projects/xtreme/KnucklesTest.html shown here]].

As a sidenote, this game was at one point meant as a tie-in for [[https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/02/the-sonic-the-hedgehog-movie-that-never-got-made/ a proposed live-action film]] called ''Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World''. The plot of the movie would have involved Sonic and Robotnik escaping from ''Sonic X-treme'' [[RefugeeFromTVLand into the real world]]. In addition, there was also a ChristmasEpisode based off the animated show ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' titled "An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas" in development to promote the new game as well. However, instead of being scrapped like the proposed live-action film, the Christmas episode was simply renamed "WesternAnimation/SonicChristmasBlast" after the game's cancellation.